Not me, Us

Lessons from the Bernie movement

Since my last article was met with such a diverse amount of responses (831 comments on FB and counting), I felt the need to follow it up with what I’m sure will be another very popular post.

Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. He has not come; he never will come. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds that there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves. You do not need the capitalist. He could not exist an instant without you. You would just begin to live without him. - Eugene V. Debs

As Debs illustrated, there can be no heroes or prophets in our movement. It is the task of the working class to emancipate themselves, not Bernie or AOC or Jimmy Dore or any one person is going to accomplish this. The capitalists need the support of the working class to keep their system intact. They need workers to get behind their agenda for military spending and endless wars across the globe. There can be no true victories for the working class without opposing the US military empire. We must follow the example of Eugene V. Debs and oppose empire at all costs. Debs lost years of his life for his unrelenting struggle and willingness to speak out against capitalist wars. He knew it was not about him, it was about the international working class.

Karl Marx, the profound economic philosopher, who will be known in the future as the great emancipator, uttered the inspiring shibboleth a half century ago: “Workingmen of all countries unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains; you have a world to gain.” - Eugene V. Debs

As you all know, we have never been just a campaign. We are a grassroots multi-racial, multi-generational movement which has always believed that real change never comes from the top on down, but always from the bottom on up. We have taken on Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the prison industrial complex and the greed of the entire corporate elite. That struggle continues. While this campaign is coming to an end, our movement is not. - Bernie Sanders

Where is the movement now? Where are the antiwar protests? The climate activists? Denver did not even have an major May Day action this year. Most of the movement has gone back to brunch. How is that working out for us? Voting for Biden to stop Trump did not work, because Biden is continuing Trump’s disastrous neoliberal policies.

And, if we keep organizing and fighting, I have no doubt that our victory is inevitable. While the path may be slower now, we WILL change this country and, with like-minded friends around the globe, the entire world. - Bernie Sanders

The right is more organized than the left. Biden crushed the BLM movement and told states to use their COVID relief money to fund the police. Biden signed more oil and gas leases than Trump. Biden started a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and is funneling billions of dollars to the military industrial complex. His Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin III, is a former Raytheon board member. Bernie voted to confirm him. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken served as a lobbyist before his appointment. Bernie also voted to confirm Blinken. While a no vote would have been performative, it would have signaled some opposition to the military industrial complex.

With a Bernie presidency, we had a modicum of hope to change the world. There were small things he could have done against what would have been bipartisan resistance to his agenda - like cancelling student loan debt, something Biden has steadfastly refused to do. That act alone would be a huge step forward in addressing racial inequality. But the primary was rigged again and there was no way Bernie was ever going to win. Our task now is to oppose neoliberalism, whatever the source, not to bemoan the defeats of the past.

At times, it seems Bernie is his old self. On February 10, Bernie addressed the senate on the developing crisis in Ukraine. He called for negotiations. He also addressed the fact that sanctions would come down to hurt the working class of the world.

But that’s not all. The sanctions against Russia that would be imposed as a consequence of its actions, and Russia’s threatened response to those sanctions, could result in massive economic upheaval – with impacts on energy, banking, food, and the day to day needs of ordinary people throughout the entire world. It is likely that Russians will not be the only people suffering from sanctions. They would be felt in Europe. They would be felt here in the United States, and around the world. - Bernie Sanders

This was a good speech though tinged with needless Russophobia that weakened its overall antiwar message. But this did not last. Less than two weeks later, he had reversed course and said:

The United States must now work with our allies and the international community to impose serious sanctions on Putin and his oligarchs, including denying them access to the billions of dollars that they have stashed in European and American banks.

This was quite the unfortunate reversal and he backed it up with his actions in April when, “United in bipartisan outrage, the Senate voted unanimously Thursday to remove Russia’s favorable trade status and to ban the import of its energy products and the House followed a short while later, clearing the bills for the president to sign.” These measures do nothing to stop the war and only hurt the working class of the world.

Even worse than Bernie supporting sanctions was his support of the funneling of billions of dollars to the military industrial complex to send weapons to Ukraine. The US Congress has been aware of the Nazi problem in Ukraine since at least June 11, 2015 when “Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Congressman Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) offered bipartisan amendments to block the training of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi paramilitary militia ‘Azov Battalion’, and to prevent the transfer of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles--otherwise known as Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems (MANPADS)--to Iraq or Ukraine.” This amendment was eventually taken out of the spending bill, but in 2017 a similar amendment passed. Bernie advocate Ro Khanna spoke to The Hill of this amendment:

White supremacy and neo-Nazism are unacceptable and have no place in our world. I am very pleased that the recently passed omnibus prevents the U.S. from providing arms and training assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine.

Knowing this, why did all the Democrats including the squad, Ro Khanna, and Bernie Sanders vote for the 40 billion dollar spending package that was primarily lethal aid? I don’t know, but I do know that this is a betrayal of the working class. More military spending has never been of benefit to anyone except the capitalist oligarchy. The international proletariat has suffered immensely from the foreign policy of the US empire. These weapons will not help the Ukrainian people as Retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis says:

Unless they’re talking about sending trained American troops to operate these things, and I pray to God they’re not, then you are going to take over a month to have to train Ukraine people on how to do this, and I assure you, it’s not easy training.

Even though these are definitely advanced weapon systems, if you don’t have a lot of them and a lot of rockets, they just aren’t going to make any difference on the strategic battlefield.

The main beneficiaries of these weapons packages are the manufacturers of the weapons which includes Raytheon. Profits for the military industrial complex, the merchants of death.

Bernie hosted a town hall discussion on the war in Ukraine in March. This was meant to be a progressive response to the war, but the panelists included Ben Rhodes. Ben Rhodes co-founded National Security Action in 2018 with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s National Security Advisor, Senior Advisor to Hillary’s 2016 campaign, and key player in shaping Obama’s foreign policy in Libya, Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine. Ben Rhodes is no antiwar activist. Also on the panel was Peter Beinart, former editor of the New Republic, who supported the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and has praised Ronald Reagan for his understanding of human nature. Another panelist, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who was the sole vote against the Afghanistan war, voted for weapons for Ukraine. Sadly missing from this discussion were true anti imperialists and antiwar voices like Medea Benjamin or Max Blumenthal. This panel was a huge disappointment for the hope of a renewed antiwar movement.

The overall message coming from Bernie now is a far cry from what he said when he launched his 2020 campaign:

Today, we say to the military-industrial-complex that we will not continue to spend $700 billion a year on the military - more than the next ten nations combined. We're going to invest in affordable housing, we're going to invest in public education, we're going to invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure - not more nuclear weapons and never-ending wars.

Billions in weapons are only meant to create a never ending war. Bernie’s campaign was about fighting for someone you don’t know and building a multiracial working class movement. Supporting Biden and the military industrial complex are the exact opposite of what Bernie’s campaign stood for.

Contrast this message with Joe Biden, who wants to fight someone he doesn’t know and has spent his entire career fighting the working class and prostituting himself for the donors.

When Bernie says he will support Biden, it is indeed a betrayal of the working class and Bernie’s own agenda. Biden lied about the $15 minimum wage, he lied about a public option, he lied about student loan debt forgiveness. Every single piece of rhetoric that he adopted from Bernie to pander for votes was a lie. The “Unity Task Force” was a complete and utter sham. It has been two years of Biden. The working class are suffering. Bernie’s proposed pandemic relief plan, which was co-sponsored by now Vice President Kamala Harris, was thrown in the garbage heap once Biden was elected. A recent study showed that Medicare for All could have saved at least 338,000 lives during the pandemic and saved over $100 billion. Instead of emergency Medicare for All which could have been enacted through section 1881a of the Social Security Act, Biden chose to cut pandemic relief and worked on continuing the Trump policy of privatizing Medicare.

So this is not just a campaign for the presidency. This is a political movement, which tells the corporate elite and the 1 percent that in this country today, they will no longer be able to have it all, that this country belongs to all of us, not just the few. - Bernie Sanders

By his support for Biden and the military industrial complex, Bernie has gone against the ideals he stood for in his campaign. If we want to listen to Bernie, the message we should take away is that is us, not him, who need to carry on the movement and create a better society. This is not a popularity contest, this is a life and death struggle between classes. We cannot get caught up in cults of personality. The only thing that matters is material gains for the working class and those cannot be realized through a corrupt Democratic party with Biden as its figurehead.